Book review of Nature\'s I.Q. (Evolution)

by David Turell , Wednesday, September 09, 2009, 17:26 (5552 days ago) @ David Turell


> The angler fish draws prey with a lighted bulb on the end of a stalk that is presumed to represent the mutated first spoke of its dorsal fin. It looks to be about as long as 1/4th-1/5th of body length. It lights up from rare bacteria in the bulb that produce luminescent chemicals.-
The Wall Street J. today has a fascinating article which uses the picture of the angler fish above. The discussion is about bacterial 'quorum sensing', and sensing 'stranger' bacteria. They elute chemical messangers to do this. An infection does not start with one bacterium in a wound on the skin. The population has to reach a large enough trigger point to really attack. Bacteria average population doubling size in the right conditions is every 20 minutes, and they keep track. If researchers can find the right molecule to disrupt that communication, infections can be halted. Other sensing chemcials for communication are suspected and the hunt is on. Isn't life at any level just wonderful to behold and so complex.-http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125236107718690619.html